I grew up on a farm and personally knew the domesticated meat on the table and I was responsible for part of the wild meat. I too have seen the light leave their eyes and felt the warmth leave thier bodies. Death is always close and personal to the hunter. I am aware of my actions as a hunter and also hold grand reverence and appreciation for what the good earth provides, both plant and animal. I thank both God and the animal for the food they provide for my table.

I once had an experience in guiding a young (late 20's) female TV host in her quest to capture the essence of a women's only WMA hunt on film. She could have been fairly described as the Princess type. She even wore designer camo and as she referred to it, a "woodsy perfume." At dinner she also passed on trying the skillfully prepared venison loin chops. She just couldn't eat them because she had seen the deer being butchered several days before.

Her attitude was that hunting was "experience" oriented in that once you killed it, it was time to move on to life's next experience. In fact, upon getting the closing shot of the dead yearling doe she killed, she promptly left the WMA in her SUV, cell phone to her ear. Her crew members left behind to clean up after her.

We as a civilization have gotten further and further from the land. Most people are not willing to look their meat in the face and then go through with the necessary steps to provide protein for the table. Sterile styrofoam and plastic wrap have eliminated them from the awarness of the requirements for survival. In other words they can not "swallow" the truth...

I think that Princess there might not actually be a hunter, just from the sound of things anyhow. I can't say that I feel anything too special when I'm eating the meat from my kills. I like how you said it Kim, ("My memory of and gratitude for that animal are enough as far as I'm concerned.")

She seems kinda confused and conflicted. Bottom line, if she's not willing to eat her take, then she should stop hunting. I don't have a problem with people who can't deal with the reality of where meat comes from, so long as they never try to restrict my freedoms on the matter.

i really don't think this woman is a hunter and if she is, she shouldn't be.

I personally don't feel any spiritual or emotional anything when i'm eating my kill.
Wait, there might be some kind of happiness the taste gives me. . . .

Nate

She should give up hunting. If you do not have any connections or fealings toward the animal that you just harvested what is the point. She obviouly isn't hunting for the meat. So if she has no emotional responce to the hunt and will not eat the meat what is the point of her hunting. One year I let someone hunt at our farm with us and he seemed to just shoot the deer just to say he shot them, he did not get excited and he did not keep the meat. Needless to say he was never invited back.

Sounds to me that the lady is writing to the reader base in trying to be PC. She might not get published again if the readers knew that she actually liked eating what she harvested.

I like a girl that hunts, but this girl is retarded. Most girls could have cleaned their kill if they wanted to. The guys might try to do it for her, but she should jump in there anyways. Anybody that hunts should clean what they kill, and that includes girls. By the way, I don't have a problem with other people helping, but the shooter should be involved one way or another.

Clay Cooper: That's really really rough man. I think you made my mouth water.

But often times when I down a goose, or duck. It's just winged. I've had to dispatch with my hands probably about 50 birds. I prefer instant kills, maybe with the $40-50 premium nontoxic box of 10 shells might do me better. But that just seems rediculous amount of money for what you get. But I digress, I can't say I feel any spiritual about the game I take. But I do take great care into getting everything to the table. I spent an hour searching for a duck that I lost.

But people who hunt and can't deal with the death, and butchering of the animal aren't hunters. And anyone who hunts just for the trophy aren't hunters either, they are killers.

Unfortunately people reading this article are going to wonder whether to eat it or try to set it free from the fridge.

Unfortunately after reading the comment about the "princess pass" I feel that she's not a real hunter, but just a trigger person. Unfortunately I'm guilty of doing the same thing fishing with my girlfriend.

As a wise oldtimer told me, "anyone can learn to pull a trigger, without feeling or remorse. But the real hunter knows that the shot counted, and a real hunter connects with their game when the deed is done"

I'm all for letting the person who got the kill, confirm and field dress it out, as that's a part of hunting. I've seen people get sick doing it, and offered to assist them, but I do insist on them participating, even if they are getting green around the gills. Reason for this is so that they have a connection to their game, and those lessons will kick in when out in the field by themselves, making them better at what they are doing.

Last year during fishing season, my girlfriend wouldn't even touch a fish, even with gloves on, so I would do the handling and unhooking. This year she actually asked me if I would show her how to handle a fish, let her touch one the next time we go out fishing. I told her that would be fine, and I would show her how it's done, so when she goes out by herself, she'll be ready to handle unhooking the fish without help.

Laura, Nor Cal I like the way you talk.

MLH, No I can't see that taking an animal with a gun is separate from taking one with a knife, and I don't have to eat chitlins to appreciate my kill. And I'm not ashamed to say my kill, not my harvest.

PETA GOT TO HER! No but really, I dont know what is going through her head. I have processed and butchered and basically done everything to make the deer come from the woods to the dinner table and i feel fine when I eat. I feel better that it is all orhanic and that it was always in the right hands and dealt with the most care... I dont have to worry about what stuff is in the meat or if the animal was healthy or not

I just don't believe her, flat out.
SBW

Let me try to rephrase this … the way I read the article, getting through the literary fluff, the author’s slaughterhouse experience made her intimately aware of the connection between a living animal and the meat in her fridge. Her Princess Pass, pushed onto her by her doting male friends and long accepted by her, had removed that awareness. She admits that what she had been doing might as well have been shooting paper since she had become so detached. The experience changed her perception of hunting as she had previously experienced it.

I was not delighted by the way she put her words together, but can certainly agree with her that hunting with a gun or bow is a distant experience compared to killing a healthy animal with a knife. And also that the foodist preachings about spiritual transcendence while taking a life and partaking of its meat is just BS. But she doesn’t deny the connection with the animal, she has become fully aware of it. Isn’t that a good thing?

Let me ask this … are people who shoot pheasants on a game farm and pay a kid to dress, pluck, and package the birds getting a Pass? What about the hunter on safari whose handlers dress and skin the game, and take every precious morsel from the gut pile that most of use leave for the canines, buzzards and maggots? Many of us might take the heart and liver, but what about the kidneys and the intestines? No taste for chitlins? Deep-fried pigskins? Head cheese? As anyone who grew up on a farm knows, all parts of a pig are edible. I leave most of the gut pile and forget the nose, sweetbreads, and tongue. Am I disrespecting the animal and just rationalizing when I tell myself that I am leaving sustenance for other creatures … just because I don’t know how to prepare it or don’t care for the taste? What about when I take a carcass to a butcher because he is much better processing and packaging the meat than I could ever be? And who, I know, will recycle the hide, which would otherwise be tossed. Am I not taking a Pass? Disconnecting? Am I not a hunter?

It takes most people awhile to adjust to a dramatic change in perspective. A girlfriend can’t eat chicken off a bone and took quite awhile before she would eat or just cook the wild game her kids and I brought home. Even though I wish she could embrace it disconnecting is her way of dealing with it. Is there a right or wrong?

A Huntress in Prada … any reference to Prada after Devil in Prada came out, is probably self-deprecating and satirical. Personally, I admire a woman that is as comfortable in waders as she is in heels, or in camo as in Victoria Secrets, or that can cut a horse as well as control a room full of hyper two year olds. And, anyone, that can take an animal every step of the way from the hunt to the dinner table.

Many of you feel that she shouldn’t hunt again. I certainly hope she does, but that she shoves her Princess Pass back into her friends’ faces. After her experience she can show them a thing or two about skinning a hide or deboning a quarter. But, if after that, she can’t stomach the game she personally takes from the field to the fridge, then, perhaps she should no longer pull the trigger. But, if that is the case, I hope she would continue to tag along with her companions, as many others do, without intention of pulling the trigger, as she still might someday come to grips with it all. By the way, the meat, as she clearly stated, did not go to waste. Sorry this is so long, but it got me going.